Make Your Own Body Butter (Updated)

On my quest to live more naturally I am intrigued by making my own soaps and lotions. One main reason is that I have a lot of allergies, sensitive skin, dry skin and I can't take too many fragrances. To help me keep the dry skin and itching under control I need a pure, natural way to clean and moisturize my skin without harsh additives and chemicals. Hence my trip into body butters. I am going to attempt to make a body butter bar which you can use just like lotion. You just smooth it on your skin. I think this would work great on problem areas like elbows and heels. I am also going to make a whipped body butter.

Here is the video that shows you exactly how to do it. It looks really easy. As for the ingredients I have decided to use as pure and organic as I can get. Primarily because I want to do what is best for my body. Chemicals actually seep into your skin. When buying the products you should look for the words: 100%, pure, organic and do not buy synthetic.

The ingredients are: Beeswax, cocoa butter, shae butter and oil. You can use any type of oil, pure (not extra virgin)cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil...etc. I am going to use sweet almond oil.

Solid Bar: Take 3 oz of shredded, or beaded beeswax, 3 oz cocoa butter, 3 oz shae butter and melt that in a glass bowl then add the 3 oz of oil, stir lightly and pour into the molds of choice. Let cool and pop out of molds when solid.

Whipped body butter: Take 3 oz cocoa butter, 6 oz shae butter and 3 oz oil. Melt and blend with a blender for a minute. Then place in freezer for a few minutes, blend again, keep doing this until you get the desired consistency.

Here are some tips that I have when making the above body butters. When using/buying the beeswax look for the kind that is already beaded. If it is not and comes in a solid form just break the brick apart into pieces. I tried to shred it and it was a mess. When I just used chunks it was fine.

I melted the beeswax first using a glass bowl and the microwave at about 30 secs intervals until almost melted then add butters and micro again until melted. When making the whipped body butter if you have a whisk setting it worked well, if not use a hand blender. It took me about 4 times in the freezer at 5 mins each time before I got the consistency I was looking for however don't forget about it because the last time I could tell was about a minute or so longer then I needed. To clean up use really hot soapy water.

You can add essential oils as well. My first time out I have to say was not hard at all and I felt pretty confident about making the products. I will test it out over the next few weeks and see if I have to tweak any of it to suit my needs better. Please let me know if you try this recipe out, if you have made products like this before and it you have any ideas, questions, or helpful suggestions.


Updates: After the product sat for awhile it hardened. The video looked nice and soft. I bought the butters from a health food store and when I opened them they were hard also so I think that is why it hardened.

Also I was a tad overwhelmed by the cocoa butter smell at first. Remember I am sensitive to smells. My daughter loves the smell, she says it smells like cake. After applying the smell actually goes away rather quickly if you are sensitive to smells and it is not unpleasant at all.


When first applying the lotion it felt a little greasy and I though "oh great this isn't going to work". However once you apply it the oiliness goes away and after product is such soft skin. My elbows feel heavenly. I had some dry, itchy spots on my thighs and it took it right away.

I believe the possibility that the butters were older and I probably needed a tad more oil made the butters harder but it still works and I know for next time.

The butter bars turned out good but are not quite firm enough. I don't think I had accurate measuring on the beeswax. I plan on putting them in the shower to use right when I get out of the shower.

After doing a bit of research I do believe there are different types of butters (hard and cream) Here is a website called Swansons that has the products at very cheap prices and shipping is cheap too. These products are way less then the health food store. I plan on getting some essential oils there as well.